In the pilot
of "Star Trek: Voyager", the new starship USS Voyager was taken to the Delta
Quadrant by a powerful being called "the Caretaker" on her first mission to the
Badlands near Cardassian space. Alone in a unexplored quadrant, Voyager attempts to find a
way back home from the northern edge of the Galaxy, 75000 light years away from Earth. In
this chapter, the seven year journey of Voyager and all its stations shall be examined
more closely, and the discoveries about the Delta Quadrant, its planets, alliances,
empires and astronomical phenomena, which were made during this time, shall be evaluated.

While Voyager's journey through the
Delta Quadrant was considerably better documented than for instance the subdivision of
the Galaxy or the structure of the Federation at the beginning, and was more simple and
logical than many other parts of the Star Trek Cartography, in the meantime this journey
have rather complicated due to numerous continuity problems, contradictions, but also new
basis information. The latter fact has lead to the problem that concerning Voyager's
journey, one cannot simply use 1000 ly/year regularly travel distance per year plus the
leaps made in the course of the seven year journey any longer.
How Rick Sternbach, the "keeper" of the official route of Voyager (that we
unfortunately will not know exactly until the ST:VOY TM is published) recently remarked
correctly, the distance of Sol to the Galactic core, the initial distance of Voyager from
Earth and her bearing are decisive for a depiction of Voyager's journey. A further
cornerstone of the Voyager cartography is also Voyager's average speed which has been
officially fixed recently. However, the problem arises that all these "fixed
values" aren't that fixed in the end. This even applies to the distance of Earth from
the center of the Galaxy. Yet, I tried to use the most recent and least contradictious
values.

1. Earth's distance to the
Galactic core Although NASA nails down this
important distance with about 25,800 ly (7.9
kpc), the out-dated, too high figure of 30,000
ly is still very common, and even the most recent Milky Way map in the ST:DS9 TM uses this
value. Nonetheless, the more recent and precise distance shall be used as the basis for
the calculations here, since otherwise, problems arise concerning Voyager's position with
regard to the Beta Quadrant border since year five of the journey (further details later).

2. Initial distance of
Voyager to EarthAgain there are two contradictious figures
regarding this cornerstone: in the pilot [VOY] Caretaker still 70000 ly (a journey of 75
years) were mentioned, but newer episodes ([VOY] One etc.) and official documentations
have established a distance of 75000 ly. Of course, one could assume that the first figure
is the distance of the Caretaker from Bajor and therefore the distance between Bajor and
Earth is responsible for the discrepancy. However, this would result in Bajor being
located far above Earth, what is actually not the case. Therefore, in this analysis
75000 ly will be used, because in the end, this assumption is necessary to avoid the Beta
Quadrant problem.

3. Voyager's heading homeThis is the most uncertain figure, because we have not
a clear on screen evidence, but can only measure in official maps. Although Rick Sternbach
explicitly wrote in a newsgroup recently that these maps only lay down a preliminary
course of Voyager that is about to change, we can actually only use the Milky Way view in
the ST:DS9 TM. From this map, we can extract an angle of 23.36° for the line
Earth-Voyager. If Voyager flew a course parallel to the Alpha/Beta Quadrant border, this
angle would simultaneously also be the bearing relative to the forward direction of the
vessel. However, courses are usually given with relationship to the center of the Galaxy.
Voyager's actual azimuthal course therefore is 008, although in the end, we only need the first figure for our
calculations.

4. Voyager's average speedSurprisingly, concerning Voyager's
normal cruising speed some considerable changes were made recently, although both fans and
official sources presupposed for years that Voyager covers, based on a journey of 75 years
and the revised distance of 75000 ly, 1000 ly per year, what corresponds to warp
7.9. However, there hasn't been an explicit on screen evidence, which was finally
made in [VOY] Pathfinder and caused some turmoil among the Voyager cartographers. Probably
to avoid a too early approach to the Beta Quadrant, which was only about 500 ly away after
the last leaps at the beginning of the 6th season, but which doesn't seem to exist in the
Voyager universe, this speed was reduced drastically and therefore Voyager was pushed some
thousand light years back into the Delta Quadrant. In fact, the figure of warp 6.2, mentioned in this episode, also seems to be more logical in view
of the fact that due to constant breaks on planets and course deviations for exploration
or delays because of hostile species, Voyager's cruising speed (said 1000c) is lowered
considerably in the year's average. Because of this, it has been suggested to use both
figures in calculations: to assume warp 6.2 (leading to 438 ly per year) for the actual
distance covered in one year or subjective statements (journey cut off by 5 years /
lengthened by 2 years) and still use 1000c (i.e. journey without breaks) for leaps of
longer distances (like "journey cut off by 10 years by covering 10000 ly").
There are some special cases, however, caused by the shortened travel time in the first
year and by avoiding Borg space in the 4th and 5th year; problems, that will be
elaborately dealt with later in the text.

After Voyager has been pushed to the
North-Western part of the Delta Quadrant by a displacement wave caused by the
Caretaker, from this far away position her voyage home begins, which would take them 75
years at maximum cruising speed, but will last the double till triple time because of
course deviations, astronomic obstacles and other delays. In the first two years, Voyager
travels through the territories of the Kazons and Vidiians and reaches in year three the
Nekrit Expanse and therefore the frontier to a completely unknown part of the Galaxy.
Here, Voyager encounters the Borg collective at the end of the third year, whose core
territory she can cross without graver damages. However, until the middle of the 5th year,
Voyager has to avoid the Borg and their flying routes. Nonetheless, in this year the crew
manages to cover half of the entire distance by using new technologies such as slipstream
and transwarp. Consequently, Voyager is now, in the 7th year of her journey, only a few
thousand light years away from the border to the Beta Quadrant.

Description

Episode

Stardate

travelled

to
Earth

1.
Caretaker / Ocampa

001. Caretaker

48317

0 ly

75000 ly

2. Distance
covered in 2371

48317-48999

300 ly

74700 ly

3. Distance
covered in 2372

49000-49999

438 ly

74262 ly

4. Distance
covered in 2373

50000-50999

438 ly

73824 ly

5. Crossing
Borg space

069. The Gift

51008

9500 ly

64324 ly

6. Distance
covered in 2374

51000-51999

438 ly

63886 ly

7. Travel
with slipstream

093. Hope and Fear

51978

300 ly

63586 ly

8. Vortex
through "the Void"

094. Night

52081

2500 ly

61086 ly

9. Travel
with slipstream

099. Timeless

52144

10000 ly

51086 ly

10. Borg
avoided in 1.5a

108. Dark Frontier I

51008-52619

-876 ly

51962 ly

11. Travel
with transwarp

109. Dark Frontier II

52619

20000 ly

31962 ly

12.
Distance covered in 2375

52000-52999

438 ly

31524 ly

13.
Subspace corridor

126. Dragon's Teeth

53168

200 ly

31324 ly

14. Space
catapult

128. The Voyager Conspiracy

53329

600 ly

30724 ly

15.
Distance covered in 2376

53000-53999

438 ly

30286 ly

An extended route table of Voyager's journey with
additional data, for instance the galactic positions in different coordinate systems,
which could be interesting for own projects, you can find in the resource The route of the USS Voyager.

While the above table of course only
shows Voyager's distance to Earth for selected key events, it is also possible to
determine a precise distance at any time by not deducting the yearly covered distance
abruptly at the end of each year, but distributing it equally over the whole year. We then
get the momentary distance by deducting the already travelled percentage of the yearly
covered distance from the appropriate table distance before the given stardate

For the calculation of Voyager's
distance to Earth at a particular time (and therefore the distance of the regions of space
crossed and the planets visited at this time etc.), you can use the following step-by-step
instructions.

2. Choose a reference distance to Earth
from the above table by comparing the stardate with the table stardates. Important: You
have to ignore all yearly covered distances (Stardate xx0000-xx999)!

Example: Stardate 51461.5 is bigger
than 51268 in 6., but smaller than 51978 in 8.; the reference distance to Earth is
therefore 62134 ly.

3. Beside the now following normal
deduction of the percentage of the yearly covered distance (1), 2 special cases have to be
considered: (2) in the first year (stardate 48317-48999), Voyager only travelled 300 ly,
therefore the yearly distance being accordingly smaller, and (3) between stardate 51008
and 52619, a Borg correction factor has to bee added to the distance, because during this
period of time, Voyager's journey became 2 years longer because of avoiding Borg space.

Example: Stardate 51461.5 is
between 51008 and 52619, thus variant (2) has to be used. Enter the stardate and reference
distance 62134 ly at (2) and click on the button to calculate the momentary distance of
Voyager from Earth at this time.

(1) General

SD Dist

(2) 48317-48999

SD Dist

(3) 51008-52619

SD Dist

With the locations of
Voyager's journey and a possibility to calculate her exact positions, we also know the
positions of all planets visited by Voyager and the territories crossed by the ship.
Consequently, the "official" Delta Quadrant is paradoxically much better known
than the Alpha or Beta quadrants. Therefore, the following passages deal with the
significant locations of the journey of the USS Voyager. Finally, at the end of the
chapter a short prospect for the further course of the still continuing journey will be
given.

Since the USS Voyager was taken to the
Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker not before stardate 48317 (that is in April 2371), the
first "year" of Voyager's journey covers only 683 stardate units or 249 days.
Consequently, at an average speed of warp 6.2 (438c), Voyager can only travel 300 ly out
of the usual 438 ly in 2371. With such a short annual distance, the galactic surroundings
has to remain the same to a large extent during this first year - and indeed, Voyager
stays the entire year in the sphere of influence of the Kazon-Ogla, Vidiians and
Talaxians, who they contacted already in the first weeks in the Delta Quadrant.

During the second year of her journey,
Voyager seems to get on as slowly as in the first year, still passing colonies of the
Talaxians, Vidiians and Kazons (mainly Ogla and Nistrim, but also other sects). The reason
for this congruence are the diverse delays and course deviations due to the fights with
the Kazons, which make a lower speed than the average warp 6.2 and therefore a annual
distance of less than 438 ly plausible. However, there were further events in this year
that delayed the voyage home, what is proven by the following example

Involuntary
"shore leave"

On stardate 49690, the crew of Voyager
had no choice but to leave Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay on an uninhabited planet
that they called ""New Earth", after on a routine mission, both had been
infected through insect stings with a dangerous, extremely infectious disease, which does
not break out only in the biosphere of the planet. When Voyager continues her journey
under the command of Tuvok, already 17d have passed, during which the doctor
unsuccessfully searched for a cure.

Only after six weeks, during which
Voyager kept on flying with normal speed and, according to Tuvok, covered 70 ly in this
time, what corresponds to an average speed of warp
6.8, Voyager has the opportunity to get a cure
from the Vidiians.
Although Tuvok set a speed of warp 6 after they escaped the Vidiian trap, it is unlikely
that Voyager stayed at that speed for the whole time of the flight back to the planet,
because then they would have needed a longer time than for the outward flight. Therefore,
we can assume that it took Voyager between 3 weeks (at warp 8) and 5 weeks (at warp 7) to
travel back to "New Earth".
Using the first, more optimistic figure, the crew therefore loses 80 d all in all, what
corresponds to a annual distance shortened by 95.998
ly at an average speed of warp 6.2.
At the end of the episode, Captain Janeway resumed the course home at warp 8 in order to
make up the lost time, but is this possible at all? Day 24 of the involuntary "shore
leave" (probably counted without the 17d stasis) corresponds to stardate 49690.1
according to the episode, what places the resumption of the voyage home on stardate 49892.7. In the
remaining 107.3 stardate units or 39.1645d, Voyager could have indeed make up the lost
distance of 95.998 ly with an average speed of nearly warp 8 (warp 7.684) , and with an
average speed of somewhat more than warp 8 (Warp
8.66), she could additionally travelled the rest of the annual distance of
46.9974 ly that has still to be managed in the remaining time.

During her journey without captain and
first officer, the crew has contact to the Vidiians for the last time, therefore Voyager
definitely leaves the sphere of influence of this species. Provided that Voyager made
first contact with the Vidiians on stardate 48532.4, their territory seems to cover at
least 535 ly, although a large extension "above" Voyager's position at the time
of first contact is not impossible.

Despite no large leaps and the usual
annual distance of 438 ly, the third year is a year of changes for Voyager's journey.
After two years, she finally leaves the known space populated by the Kazons and Vidiians
and ventures to new, unknown regions of the Delta Quadrant.

Leaving Kazon
space

Already just at the beginning of the
year, on stardate 50032.7, the crew of Voyager has the last contact with the Kazon, what
seems to imply that they finally leave their "territory" (better called the
space dominated by the - nomadic - Kazon sects). It is unknown how far Kazon space extends
"above" the Ocampa homeworld, where first contact were made by the crew of
Voyager on stardate 48317. However, this planets seems to be located in the border zone
rather than in the center of their space, which is dominated by more powerful sects than
the Kazon-Ogla, for instance the Kazon-Nistrim. Regarding the space crossed by Voyager
within the last 2 years (since the arrival in the Delta Quadrant on stardate 48317), this
leads to a diameter of about 750 ly, what can be considerably less (using a lower annual
average speed of Voyager in the first year) or more (based on the assumption that Kazon
space extends over several hundred light years above the Ocampa homeworld.
A diameter of this magnitude seems to be plausible in view of the fact that the Kazon,
being nomadic living traders and conquerors, must naturally populate a larger region of
space, what necessarily means that every single planet within this territory must be in
their hands, but that the region can have larger "gaps". At any rate, these
extensions of the influence spheres of the Vidiians and Kazons support the low annual
average speed of 6.2, since based on the maximum cruising speed of Voyager (warp 8 =
1000c), the territories of this rather insignificant species would cover 1500-2000 ly.

The Barzan
Wormhole

When Voyager reaches Takar II on
stardate 50074.3, she has also reached the exact location of one of the termini of
the instable Barzan Wormhole, which was used by a shuttle of the Enterprise-D and a
shuttle of a Ferengi Marauder in 2366 to visit the Delta Quadrant. Therefore we have for
the first time the opportunity to compare the calculated route of Voyager with the
distances given on screen, in this case in the according TNG episode "The
Price". However, in this episode, 70000ly were mentioned, while at the
beginning of year three of her journey, Voyager should be still more than 74000 ly away
from Earth. There are several possible explanations for this discrepancy:

1. At any rate, it should be taken into account that at the time the episode
"The Price" was produced, the distance figures were of course not calculated
with regard to a possible future series, and vice versa, the authors of Star Trek: Voyager
surely didn't intended to continue the story of the two left Ferengi at the exact time
when Voyager had reached the according point in space, but when they had an idea for a
continuation.

2. On the other hand, the 70000 ly could be regarded as a proof for Voyager's
initial distance to Earth, 70000 ly, which was still mentioned on screen regularly in the
first and second season, while since the 4th season, in the episodes a distance of 75000
ly was used ("One" etc.). In this case, Voyager would still be more than 69000
ly away from Earth in 2373, with 70000 ly being a plausible approximate value.

3. Another explanation is based on the fact that the 70000 ly in "The
Price" refer to the distance from Barzan, not Earth. With the Barzan's distance from
Earth and its relative galactic situation, the discrepancy can be then easily explained:
if Barzan is located above Earth in the upper part of the Alpha- or Beta Quadrant, how it
can be actually seen in some official maps, the distance of 75000 ly is of course
shortened due to the nearer position of Barzan relative to the Delta Quadrant.

The territory of the Swarm

On stardate 50252.3 -
the USS Voyager is still approximately 74150 ly away from Earth - the ship reaches
the extensive territory of the mysterious Swarm. It would take the crew of Voyager several
months to fly around this region of space.

Therefore the crew decides to
decides to cross the territory of the Swarm at a narrow place - how we can see in the map
shown in this episode, which has been reproduced in the right-hand chart.
Unfortunately, no scale is given that would allow an estimation of the dimensions of the
territory, however, Chakotay makes two remarks concerning the time necessary to travel
through the region of space:

1. Travelling through
the territory will last 4 days at very high warp speed.

2. Sustaining warp 9.75 for 12 hours,
Voyager has travelled a third of the distance.

With the first statement, exact
calculations aren't possible, but perhaps with the second one. However, the question
arises if the maximum speed of Voyager is meant (warp 9.975) or really warp 9.75. To
simplify the process and because the first speed is nearly 3 times as high as the
latter one (what would make the territory too big), we use the speed mentioned in the
episode, even if it could be a slip of the tongue. Based on this premise, Voyager can
travel 27.4 ly in 4 days. If this is a third of the distance, the whole route is
approximately 82 ly long. The comparison of this route (on the map 38 pixels) with the
whole shown territory of the Swarm leads to a dimension of the shown region of nearly 570 ly - and borders aren't visible. After all
these calculations, we certainly know that the territory of the Swarm is really quite
large, but it seems to be considerably smaller than for instance Borg space, and it is
restricted to a length of less than 1000 ly, because the crew never met the Swarm again.

The Nekrit
Expanse

After she has already
left the sphere of influence of the Kazons, the Vidiians and Talaxians, the USS Voyager
finally reaches the physical border of known space in the middle of the year 2373,
approximately on stardate 50443: the Nekrit Expanse, which only few starships have crossed
yet. The knowledge of what lies behind this final frontier is limited to myths and
legends, and even Neelix, who was the guide of the crew of Voyager through the Delta
Quadrant up to that moment, cannot fall back on his former experiences any longer.

The Nekrit Expanse is
described as an extensive, not surveyed, instable region of space which is full of
interstellar dust clouds and plasma storms, but contains only few planets. The expanse has
a width of several thousand
light years, but seems to be
not very deep since Voyager can cross the region in relatively short time. She enters the
Nekrit Expanse in "Fair Trade" and apparently already leaves it sometime between
"Unity" and "The Darkling", because in the first episode, the expanse
is explicitly mentioned (and shown), while in the latter one, with the arrival at the
Mikhal outpost Voyager enters a completely new, unknown region of space, and the expanse
does not play any part in the following episodes. Consequently, Voyager was definitely
inside the Nekrit Expanse between stardate 50443 and 50654 - what results in a total time
of 211 stardate units or 77d. If Voyager travelled only at an average
speed of warp 6.2 during this two and a half months, then the expanse has a depth of 92.398 ly. However, it is more likely that Voyager
travelled at a considerably faster speed during that time. In "Fair Trade", it
was mentioned that there are only few planets within the expanse and Voyager loads all
necessary supplies for the journey in this episode so that regular stops aren't necessary
in the end. This assumption is confirmed by the small number of missions while they
travelled through the expanse (visit of four planets). Therefore using the maximum cruising
speed of Voyager - warp 8, we get a depth of 216.017 ly for
the Nekrit Expanse, a figure, that is considerably more plausible in view of the large
width and the ignorance of the people in the regions explored by the USS Voyager about the
space behind the expanse.

Based on a constant cruising speed of warp 8 and the stardates of the single episodes we
can now calculate the distances of the visited planets and crossed regions within the
Nekrit Expanse from the border of the expanse:

In late 2374, on
stardate 51929.3, the USS Voyager reaches a vast Mutara class nebula, whose borders are
beyond the sensor range. Therefore Voyager can't fly around and also cannot simply travel
through due to dangerous radioactivity within the nebula. In the astrometric lab, Captain
Janeway and Seven consider the remaining possibilities by scanning the spatial size and
shape of the nebula with the more advanced astrometric sensors.

The map on the
right is a two-dimensional reproduction of the extraordinary three-dimensional
visualization shown in the episode. However, the map, which also contains Voyager's route
and the locations mentioned in the episode (see table below), only approximately depicts
the borders and with a relatively high error rate, because the nebula has an unusually
difficult shape and a variable expansion in the Z-direction, what is shown on the map by
several nested borders.The
expansion of the nebula is said to be at least 110 ly, perhaps even more. It would take
Voyager a month to travel through and more than one year to fly around. Due to the
sub-nucleonic radiation, the crew has to stay unconsciously in stasis chambers during the
travel through the nebula and assign command to Seven. The following table based on
Seven's log depicts the most significant events.

Stardate

Day

ETA

Route /
Events / Remarks

51901.9

1

"a good month"

0% of distance. Stardate
calculated

51929.3

10

30% of distance. Daily routine.Finally a false sensor alarm.

51932.4

correctly: 51981.4

29

6d 5h

68% of distance.
First computer errors and hallucinations of Seven. Eventually the doctor fails. The
stardate is completely wrong. Because Seven's Trajis-hallucination mentions 3 (instead of
4) weeks in the nebula, the calculating errors might be due to Seven's condition, because
the 29 days must be correct because of the computer ETA (6d 5h) and the previous
estimation (a good month).

51995.1

34

17h 11min

95% of distance. The system fails
and hallucinations of Sevens increase.Day and stardate are calculated.

51997.8

35

41 min

99% of distance.The warp engines fail. Seven transfers energy from the stasis chambers,
but finally deactivates life support. Day and stardate are calculated.

51997.9

35

0 min

Nebula crossed. Day and
stardate are calculated.

Note: Because of the
incorrect stardate calculation (2.7 days / unit instead of the correct 2.7 units / day)
this episode overlaps with the next one, [VOY] Hope and Fear.

Because we finally know the exact travel time for crossing the
Mutara class nebula, we can now determine Voyager's average speed. Although calculations
are influenced by the much lower speed at the end of the journey, Voyager had to sustain warp 8.25 on average to cover 110 ly in 35
days. That seems to be too high; but perhaps the distance was much shorter than the
mentioned expansion of 110 ly, since Voyager (as it could be seen on the map) travelled
through the nebula at a narrow part.

Summarizing, most episodes seem to
confirm the calculated route of Voyager. However, there are countless possible variants
that would roughly match with the distances given in the episodes. Surely the ST:VOY
Technical Manual - should it ever be published - will show a completely other picture of
the journey, but until then, the depicted table is as exact and "canon" as
possible in view of the many variables that have to be taken into consideration and the
many discrepancies and errors in the show itself. Concluding, the following table lists
some of the congruences as well as the discrepancies of the calculated route and the
actual distances mentioned in the series.

Stardate

Calculated distance

Mentioned distance

Source

48317 - 50999

75000 ly - 73824 ly

75000 ly / 70000 ly

first, second, third season episodes (quotes)

51268.4

64348 ly

65000 ly

Year of Hell I (quote)

51461.5

64368 ly

62000 ly

ST:DS9 TM (text)

52500

51678 ly

50000 ly

Gravity (quote)

52999

32169 ly

35000 ly

Equinox I (quote)

53849.2

30352 ly

30342 ly

Live Fast and Prosper (quote)

54090.4

30246 ly

35000 ly

Repression (quote)

54129.4

30229 ly

30000 ly

Imperfection (quote)

54208.3

30169 ly

30000 ly

Inside Man (quote)

In the end, the last leap on stardate 53329 and the distance Voyager has bridge since then
results in a distance of 30067 ly to Earth in the middle of season 7 (by stardate 54500), if
the already covered part of the annual distance (219 of 438 ly) is included in the
calculations.
Consequently, at this time Voyager is only 1944
ly away from the border of the Delta Quadrant,
using the revised distance of Earth from the Galactic core (25,800 ly). Hence, she will
probably never reach the Beta Quadrant, which is inexplicably a taboo in Star Trek:
Voyager, but will surely directly travel back to Earth (by slipstream, transwarp or
whatever propulsion technology or powerful being) by the end of season 7, if the
"policy of small leaps" of the recent episodes is kept up.